Review Checklist

When reviewing tickets in Apache JIRA, the following items should be covered as part of the review process:

General

  • Does it conform to the Code Style guidelines?
  • Is there any redundant or duplicate code?
  • Is the code as modular as possible?
  • Can any singletons be avoided?
  • Can any of the code be replaced with library functions?
  • Are units of measurement used in the code consistent, both internally and with the rest of the ecosystem?

Error-Handling

  • Are all data inputs and outputs checked (for the correct type, length, format, and range) and encoded?
  • Where third-party utilities are used, are returning errors being caught?
  • Are invalid parameter values handled?
  • Are any Throwable/Exceptions passed to the JVMStabilityInspector?
  • Are errors well-documented? Does the error message tell the user how to proceed?
  • Do exceptions propagate to the appropriate level in the code?

Documentation

  • Do comments exist and describe the intent of the code (the “why”, not the “how”)?
  • Are javadocs added where appropriate?
  • Is any unusual behavior or edge-case handling described?
  • Are data structures and units of measurement explained?
  • Is there any incomplete code? If so, should it be removed or flagged with a suitable marker like ‘TODO’?
  • Does the code self-document via clear naming, abstractions, and flow control?
  • Have NEWS.txt, the cql3 docs, and the native protocol spec been updated if needed?
  • Is the ticket tagged with “client-impacting” and “doc-impacting”, where appropriate?
  • Has lib/licences been updated for third-party libs? Are they Apache License compatible?
  • Is the Component on the JIRA ticket set appropriately?

Testing

  • Is the code testable? i.e. don’t add too many or hide dependencies, unable to initialize objects, test frameworks can use methods etc.
  • Do tests exist and are they comprehensive?
  • Do unit tests actually test that the code is performing the intended functionality?
  • Could any test code use common functionality (e.g. ccm, dtest, or CqlTester methods) or abstract it there for reuse?
  • If the code may be affected by multi-node clusters, are there dtests?
  • If the code may take a long time to test properly, are there CVH tests?
  • Is the test passing on CI for all affected branches (up to trunk, if applicable)? Are there any regressions?
  • If patch affects read/write path, did we test for performance regressions w/multiple workloads?
  • If adding a new feature, were tests added and performed confirming it meets the expected SLA/use-case requirements for the feature?

Logging

  • Are logging statements logged at the correct level?
  • Are there logs in the critical path that could affect performance?
  • Is there any log that could be added to communicate status or troubleshoot potential problems in this feature?
  • Can any unnecessary logging statement be removed?